Wednesday, September 30, 2015

(JPost) Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday that the "Palestinian flag will be raised in Jerusalem," after addressing rising tensions centering on the Temple Mount over recent weeks.

Davutoglu also harshly criticized the "expansion of settlements and Israel's continued policy of violating international law." The prime minister went on to say that "the right of Palestinians to live as one must be recognized."

The Turkish leader also vowed to provide the political and financial support necessary to help Palestinians in their effort for independence.

Up to 3,000 migrants are expected to cross into Macedonia every day in the coming months, most of them refugees fleeing war, particularly from Syria, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Member states of the European Union must share the burden by establishing "equitable re-distribution" of desperate families seeking asylum in the bloc, the U.N. refugee agency said.

Nearly 300,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean this year, including nearly 181,500 in Greece and 108,500 in Italy, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Some 10,000 refugees and migrants crossed into Macedonia from Greece amid chaotic scenes last weekend, it said. About 30 percent are women and children, UNICEF said.

"They are coming in large groups of 300 to 400 people and then traveling onwards by train or bus to Serbia. We are anticipating that this influx and this route is going to continue at the rate of up to 3,000 people per day," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a news briefing.

"We do not see any end to the flow of people to come in the coming months, where there's good weather and people can continue to cross the Mediterranean," she said. In 2014, boats set out from Libya and Turkey through November.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland said on Wednesday it has suspended decision-making on asylum claims by Iraqis and Somalis while it continues to assess the security situation in the two countries.

The Finnish Immigration Service said it might tighten guidelines for granting people asylum after the assessment is completed within a couple of weeks, indicating that some claims may not be based on genuine fear of war or persecution.

The suspension concerns only some tens of asylum seekers whose claim would have been decided now, said Jaana Vuorio, the head of the Nordic country's immigration service.

Finland has in recent weeks experienced a growing influx of asylum seekers coming over the land border at Tornio, near the Arctic Circle, after a long journey through Sweden.

Around 17,000 asylum seekers have reached Finland this year, among hundreds of thousands who have streamed into Europe from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Of those now in Finland, 69 percent came from Iraq and 10 percent from Somalia. Last year, a total of 3,600 came to Finland.

IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — Relief agencies have set up a tent city at Greece's border with Macedonia to cope with the growing number of migrants trying to reach central Europe ahead of winter — with some resorting to extreme measures to complete the journey.

The facilities that have been set up over the past week have a capacity of 1,000 to serve one of the busiest bottlenecks in the country, near the Greek border town of Idomeni.

Syrian English literature student Hussam Jaban, 21, told The Associated Press he swam to a Greek island from the Turkish coast to avoid paying smugglers and keep enough money for the mainland journey through Europe.

"There were 13 of us and we all made it," Jaban said, moments before crossing into Macedonia on foot. "We had a small inflatable boat for a three-year-old child and we pushed it along."

Jaban said it took him four hours to swim from the small Turkish resort of Kas to the eastern Greek island of Castellorizo.

The numbers of migrants arriving to Greece's islands exploded over the summer months, with more than 5,000 people per day making the Aegean Sea journey so far in September, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

About 70 percent of the arrivals are from Syria and most continue their journey through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary toward more prosperous northern European nations.

In the past 24 hours, some 4,500 people arrived at the Idomeni crossing, most of them by bus from Athens, Greek police said.

Italian police have cleared a makeshift migrant encampment near the French border. The camp in Ventimiglia was formed after France in June set up border checks to prevent onward movement of migrants.

The camp was cleared early Wednesday as some migrants gathered along the seaside and protested, with one banner reading "We want freedom to cross the border."

Some 50 migrants - mostly from Africa - and activists remained by the time the police arrived. Many others in the camp that holds up to 250 people had left following a police warning on Tuesday.

"They have to move, I'm not sure at the moment where they'll be taken... but this situation could not go on. We understand why they are protesting but the camp was illegal," Ventimiglia Mayor Enrico Ioculano told Italian media.

A police spokesperson said the camp was being cleared because the migrants were using electricity and water without paying.

(Judicial Watch) As if the President Obama’s sweeping amnesty measures haven’t compromised national security enough, the administration let 1,519 “inadmissible” foreigners embroiled in terrorism into the U.S. last year because the crimes were committed “while under duress.”

Before the Obama administration tweaked a federal law last year, these foreign nationals would have been banned from the country for supporting terrorist causes. But under the changes the Secretary of Homeland Security has “discretionary authority” to waive certain grounds of inadmissibility relating to terrorism. We’ve seen this discretionary authority abused in the last few years and in fact, the administration has eliminated a zero tolerance policy for granting asylum or residency to individuals who have provided any sort of terrorism-related support.

The government’s latest available figures for granting asylum or residency to individuals embroiled in terrorist causes are incredibly disturbing, especially since the agency charged with keeping the nation safe, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), appears to downplay the seriousness of the crimes. Judicial Watch obtained the numbers from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) annual report to Congress on the DHS secretary’s application of discretionary authority.

The biggest chunk of exemptions was processed for refugee applicants and lawful permanent resident status, with 806 and 614 respectively. The rest were processed under other DHS programs such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), asylum and relief through a Justice Department initiative. The bottom line is that the U.S. government is allowing them all to stay in the country with rights and benefits afforded to legal residents despite their terrorist connections and associations.

More than half of the candidates rewarded by DHS last year provided material support to terrorist organizations, according to the DHS report. The others received military-type training from a terrorist organization, voluntarily provided medical care to members of a terrorist group and solicited funds or individuals for membership in a terrorist organization. After a case-by-case review, Obama’s DHS Secretary, Jeh Johnson, determined that the recently admitted terrorists only participated in these activities “while under duress.” So, welcome to America!

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The International Organization for Migration says a record number of people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year, now topping a half a million.

As of Tuesday, the group says 522,124 people have traveled by sea to reach the continent this year. Some 388,000 have entered via Greece, more than 175,000 of them from war-torn Syria — the largest single refugee source as a country. Another 6,710 Syrians entered through Italy.

A Czech opposition group has called for nationwide referendums on whether the nation should quit the European Union and reject last week's EU decision to redistribute 120,000 asylum-seekers among its nations.

The refugee decision was approved by EU ministers this week despite opposition from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Slovakia is planning to challenge the move but the Czech government said it would respect it.

The parliamentary Dawn group says the moves are to protest the EU refugee plan. It says the Czech Republic is a sovereign state that can take care of itself.

Dawn chairman Miroslav Lidinsky said Tuesday: "We want to join Britain to send a message to the European Union that it needs to reform."

Another parliamentary opposition group, the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement, said Tuesday it wants the government to face a parliamentary no-confidence vote over the same issue.

Danish police say a 25-year-old man who was to be deported has been arrested and is suspected of attempted murder for stabbing a police officer in the neck, arm and shoulder in Denmark's largest asylum center.

Spokesman Henrik Suhr says the suspect was "a stateless Palestinian," and the victim, a 56-year-old male officer, was no longer in a life-threatening condition.

The suspect, who was not named in line with Danish privacy rules, stabbed the policeman after he had entered a room Tuesday before dawn to find out why the lights had been turned on. Suhr added they were investigating what the suspect was doing inside the room at Center Sandholm.

Bavaria's governor says 169,400 migrants have arrived in the southeastern German state, by far the main point of entry to the country, since the beginning of September.

Gov. Horst Seehofer gave the figure Tuesday and said 10,000 people arrived on Monday alone, the dpa news agency reported. Seehofer, a conservative ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been critical of her decision several weeks ago to allow in refugees who had piled up in Hungary. He said "these are dimensions that in the past we didn't have in a whole year."

Asylum-seekers are slogging through rain and mud-caked roads in Croatia, as worsening fall weather plagues their journeys to seek sanctuary in richer European countries.

Some 85,000 migrants have entered Croatia since Sept. 15, when Hungary closed its border with Serbia. That action diverted people to this economically struggling Balkan nation of 4.2 million, swelling roads near its border with thousands fleeing conflict and poverty from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Saudi Arabia has given foreign diplomats some 1,100 photographs of the dead from last week's hajj crush and stampede, Indian and Pakistani authorities said, an indication of a significantly higher death toll than previously offered by the kingdom.

Saudi officials could not be immediately reached for comment Monday night about the discrepancy in the toll of the disaster in Mina. The Saudi Health Ministry's latest figures, released Saturday, put the toll at 769 people killed and 934 injured.

Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a lawmaker in Pakistan's governing PML-N political party who is leading his country's response to the disaster, said Saudi officials gave diplomats "1,100 photos" of the dead from Mina. Chaudhry told journalists during a news conference broadcast nationwide on Monday night that the photos could be viewed at Saudi embassies and missions abroad.

"This is the official figure of martyrs from Saudi officials, given for the identification process," Chaudhry said.

His comments echoed those of Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj from Sunday.

"Saudi authorities have released photos of 1,090 pilgrims who have died in (the hajj) stampede," Swaraj wrote on Twitter.

Sixty people were hurt when a mass riot broke out over food at a tented refugee camp in Germany.

Police used tear gas to break up brawling between around 400 refugees.

The riot at Calden near Kassel came on the the same day Germany's biggest police union called for a new 'apartheid' system to be enforced in refugee homes – the separation of people according to religion – after a number of flare ups in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Germany's domestic intelligence chief warned of a radicalisation of right-wing groups amid a record influx of migrants as xenophobic rallies and clashes shook several towns at the weekend.

'What we're seeing in connection with the refugee crisis is a mobilisation on the street of right-wing extremists, but also of some left-wing extremists who oppose them,' said Hans-Georg Maassen.

He added that for the past few years the agency - the Office for the Protection of the Constitution - had witnessed a 'radicalisation' and 'a greater willingness to use violence' by all extremist groups.

Police and soldiers guarded two buses carrying about 100 migrants Saturday night to a shelter in the town of Niederau, in the eastern Saxony state, after right-wing protesters had rallied at the site, a former supermarket, since Friday.

Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's bold open-door policy for refugees has sparked a backlash in her conservative ranks, and a rare dip in her usually sky-high popularity ratings.

After the party-like atmosphere of recent weeks when volunteers euphorically welcomed Syrians at train stations, many have now begun more soberly reflecting on what it will mean to accept up to one million newcomers this year.

TETEGHEM, France (AP) — A Mercedes and a BMW, both with British license plates, sit in a forest clearing on the edge of a small migrant camp in northern France. Everyone here speaks in whispers, or not at all. Bullet holes pock two shipping containers sheltering migrants, all trying to get to England, helping to explain the silence.

People smugglers who get rich off desperate migrants span the globe, and their tentacles extend into nooks and crannies like Teteghem, a small town outside Dunkirk. Here the smuggling kingpins are firmly in control, and growing nasty.

"Don't come see me in the camp," said a typically cautious Iranian migrant in the parking lot of a local grocery store, where talking is easier. "Problems," he added, putting his finger to his head. "Bang!"

An Iraqi migrant was wounded by gunfire in mid-August, caught in the crossfire of score-settling among smugglers, said Teteghem Mayor Franck Dhersin. This month, police chased a Mercedes driven by a suspected smuggler into a ditch at the camp entrance, the shattered glass and skid marks visible a week later. An 18-year-old Syrian displayed his bandaged right leg and a hospital report stating that "metallic" objects were removed — police bullets according to migrants, metal from bullet-punctured containers hit by smugglers, says the mayor.

Few French know of the town of Teteghem, but some migrants first heard the name in a phone call before ever leaving their homeland. It is described by Mayor Dhersin and others as a drop-off point for a band of people smugglers taking in Syrians, Iraqis and Iranians; ultimately, officials believe, the gang is locked into a Britain-based network that may stretch to Kurdish regions of the Middle East.

The migrants are among thousands of desperate travelers who pass through northern France trying to sneak onto trucks, ferries or freight trains to Britain, where they hope to find a better life.

Robert Crepinko, head of the Organized Crime Network at Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, estimates there are roughly 30,000 suspected people smugglers operating in the 28-nation EU, with most living within the bloc. Some smugglers even advertise their services on social networks like Facebook, he said. [...]

KUNDUZ CITY, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters battled their way into the center of Kunduz city in northern Afghanistan on Monday and freed hundreds of fellow militants from jail, in one of the most serious security breaches in 14 years of war, witnesses and officials said.

The assault was the second time this year that the hardline Islamist movement has besieged Kunduz city, defended by Afghan forces battling largely without NATO's support after it withdrew most of its troops last year.

The insurgents launched a three-sided surprise offensive at around dawn, and by mid-afternoon they had hoisted their white flag over Kunduz's main square, about 200 meters from the governor's compound, according to a Reuters witness.

The witness also said battles were raging in two districts nearby.

According to two security officials, Taliban gunmen, some armed with rocket-propelled grenades, overwhelmed security guards and broke into the main city prison, freeing hundreds of fighters.

A mass brawl involving up to 200 refugees erupted in a German asylum seeker shelter after a young Syrian girl was allegedly threatened with a knife by a teenage Afghan boy.

Violence broke out between Syrians and Afghans after tensions reached boiling point in a converted exhibition hall in Leipzig, where around 1,800 refugees have been living for the past two weeks.

Refugees fought each other with bars, table legs and bed frames on Thursday evening, forcing German Red Cross staff to flee. Two female workers were injured in the chaos, with one breaking a knee cap after falling as she tried to escape, while the other suffered from shock.

The brawl was allegedly sparked after an 11-year-old Syrian girl was threatened with a knife by a teenage Afghan boy.

Refugees also turned on security staff and soldiers standing guard in the hall, although they were not injured, according to police.

The exact number of refugees injured in the carnage was unclear, said police. A huge contingent of officers was finally able to bring the situation under control.

Six Afghans were taken into custody on suspicion of breaching the peace, and police are also investigating the suspected coercion with a knife of the girl, as well as reports of injury and mobile phone theft.

The incident in Leipzig is the latest brawl to break out among refugees staying in shelters in Germany, where accommodation is growing increasingly limited and migrants have been forced to stay in overcrowded housing.

In August, violence spilled over at a refugee shelter in the town of Suhl in central Germany after an Afghan tore out pages from the Koran, prompting anger from 20 other residents, police said.

The same refugee home in Suhl was previously criticised over the building's structural defects and overcrowding. A lack of space triggered an earlier brawl at the shelter at the beginning of August after refugees had to sleep in the passageways.

Bodo Ramelow, state prime minister for Thuringia and a member of the Left party, called last month for separate refugee accommodation for different ethnic groups to minimise tensions.

Germany is officially expected to receive 800,000 asylum applications by the end of this year, although earlier this month German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel put the number at one million.

A woman in Germany is being evicted from her home of 16 years to make way for asylum-seekers, amid growing concerns over how Germany will find accommodation for the hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding into the country.

Bettina Halbey, a 51-year-old nurse, has lived alone in her flat in the small western German town of Nieheim since her children grew up.

On September 1, she received a letter from her landlord, the local municipality, telling her the building was being turned into a refugee shelter and she had until next May to leave.

“I was completely taken aback,” Ms Halbey told Welt newspaper. “I find it impossible to describe how the city has treated me.”

When Ms Halbey vented her frustration on Facebook, asking why she was being evicted when properties were standing empty in the town, her comment was shared 200,000 times.

In Germany, where 52 per cent of people rent their homes, it is unheard of to be asked to leave under such circumstances.

Tenants are strongly protected by law, and can normally only be evicted if they have broken the terms of their rental agreement.

“I’ve muddled through sorrow and distress, and then I get this notice,” said Ms Halbey, who brought up her two children as a single mother in the flat. “It was like a kick in the teeth.”

It’s only been a few weeks, and already Angela Merkel’s foolish “compassion” is testing the nerves of Germans, who are just now realizing the enormity of what’s happening to their country. They’ve been had [Read the whole thing here.]

Damascus (AFP) - When customers ask which of the backpacks displayed in Damascus's Souk al-Khija market is the sturdiest, shopkeeper Walid knows they are planning to take to the sea and try to reach Germany. [...]

"I sell 20 backpacks a day to customers of all ages, to whole families," said Walid. "There's no need to ask. They are refugee bags."

The rolling suitcases lined up along the sidewalk are not nearly as popular.

"I call them the visa-suitcases, for the people who have chosen a legal voyage, but I don't sell many, maybe two or three a day."

Abu Mohammed is another shopkeeper in Souk al-Khija, which specialises in travel items.

He says some 1,000 backpacks are sold every day, and that factories have had to increase production to meet the skyrocketing demand. [...]

Germany has said it expects 800,000 to one million asylum applications by the end of this year.

"In 2011 -- that is, before the crisis -- the embassy was issuing about 6,500 visas per year of all types. Today, this number has increased five-fold," a German official told AFP.

"German fever" has now gripped Damascus, where young professionals and students are scrambling to learn German -- a prerequisite for student visas.

Before the war erupted, the Goethe Institute cultural centre had offered language classes in Damascus.

But since it closed its doors, more than 25 German language schools have sprung up to serve at least 1,000 students.

Pupils pay $200 to $250 (179-223 euros) to reach the language level required to apply for a student visa.

At the Ibn Sina centre, the demand is so high that the administration has replaced all English courses with German, director Mohammad al-Omari tells AFP.

"For eight years, we did five German sessions per month, compared with 15 today. We increased the number of teachers from three to eight," he said.

Large maps of Germany hang on classroom walls, each city marked in large script. [...]

BERLIN (Reuters) - The rising cost of looking after refugees may scupper the budget plans of some European governments, and Brussels should consider exemptions for such spending under its EU deficit rules, Austria's finance minister was quoted as saying.

"The short-term costs are high but predictable. More critical is the question of the longer-term effects (on the budgets)," Hans Joerg Schelling told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, in an interview published on Sunday.

He said a lot of refugees would stay in Europe, which meant governments had to build more houses and schools. "I have my doubts that the budgets that are being planned now will be sufficient," the minister said.

Some economists argue that the increased number of refugees will lead to stronger domestic demand, and therefore higher tax revenue. "But you have to keep in mind that this growth push is financed with more spending and more debt," Schelling said.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

(CBC) The federal government has sent letters to at least five people linked to extremist activity, including the man thought to be the mastermind of a plot to bomb downtown Toronto in an effort to terrorize Canadians and cripple the economy, telling them their citizenship is being revoked, CBC News has learned.

Zakaria Amara is among three members of the so-called Toronto 18 — the other two are Asad Ansari and Saad Khalid — who were informed by letter they were being stripped of citizenship under Bill C-24, dubbed the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, passed last May.

Two others not linked to the Toronto 18, but who have received letters, are:

Mohamed Hersi, convicted of trying to join the Somalia-based extremist group al-Shabaab. Hersi's lawyer, Paul Slansky, confirmed his client received the letter.

Hiva Mohamme Alizadeh, convicted in an Ottawa in a terror plot.

CBC News is working to confirm reports that others linked to extremist activity have received similar letters.

This man hated Canada so much, he planned on murdering hundreds of Canadians. He forfeited his own citizenship. https://t.co/gxqDtOoKUg

Recipients of a notice of citizenship revocation were given 60 days to respond to it.

Amara was sentenced in 2010 to life in prison with no chance of parole until 2016 after admitting his role in the plan to attack sites in Toronto, aimed in part at forcing Canadian soldiers to leave Afghanistan. His citizenship has already been revoked, after receiving the letter in June.

Ansari was released with time served in 2010 for his role in the Toronto 18 plot. He was convicted of knowingly contributing to, directly or indirectly, a terrorist group for the purpose of enhancing the ability of the group to carry out an act of terror.

Khalid is still serving time for intending to cause an explosion that would likely cause serious bodily harm, death or damage to property.

STROSINCI, Croatia (AP) — Cooperation replaced confrontation Saturday among European nations as thousands of asylum-seekers streamed into Croatia in hopes of creating a new future in Western Europe.

Despite steps that should eventually ease the chaos, the sheer number of people flooding into Croatia strained the resources of one of the European Union's poorest nations. At least 10,000 arrived on Friday alone, and Croatian authorities struggled to keep up with the influx of those fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

At one tiny border crossing point, Croatian police said thousands were abandoned at a remote crossing after Serb authorities bused them to a point near the village of Strosinci and left.

Unclear where they were, the migrants tried to cross into Croatia, but got lost in the nearby cornfields. Croatian police found them, and called in buses to take the travelers to the nearby transit camp at Opatovac, but individual families were separated in the chaos.

A woman from Damascus who only gave her first name, Ranaa, said she lost her sons, 2 years old and 7 years old, after they boarded a bus to the Opatovac refugee camp without her. Later buses leaving her area were going directly to Hungary, and bypassing Opatovac.

Distraught and struggling in English to make herself understood, she begged to be taken from Strosinci to the transit camp, where relatives have seen the children.

Despite it all, a new cooperative mode began emerging among the nations in southeast Europe. Hungary announced it had removed spools of razor wire from a section of its border with Slovenia, a barrier that breached EU rules about unrestricted travel within much of its territory. The gesture followed the reopening of the main border point between Croatia and Serbia.

The concessions, coming two days after an EU summit on the migrant crisis, suggested the bloc had become alarmed at the lack of cooperation among its members and the increasingly ugly tone of their exchanges.

Hungary's closure of its border with Serbia on Sept. 15 triggered a tsunami of responses that sent migrants scurrying from one border to the next as they tried to reach Germany, Austria and other European countries. Since then, some 65,000 people on the move have entered Croatia.

Croatia first welcomed the migrants, thinking they would pass through to Slovenia, Austria and Germany. But Slovenia refused to let the people pass, leaving Croatia responsible for thousands who had no food, water or shelter. The government in Zagreb then accused Serbia of shunting the refugees into its territory and closed the cargo crossing in retaliation.

Sofia (AFP) - Bulgaria's Orthodox Church has called on its government not to let any more Muslim refugees into the country to prevent an "invasion".

The Balkan EU member has largely been bypassed by the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and poverty, many of whom set off from Greece through neighbouring Macedonia and Serbia towards northern Europe.

But Bulgaria has still seen Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis cross its southeastern border from Turkey.

"We help refugees who have already arrived in our motherland, but the government must absolutely not let more refugees in," the church -- which claims 80 percent of the population as its followers -- said late Friday on its website.

"This is a wave that looks like an invasion."

It added that the problems in the refugees' countries of origin "must be resolved by those who created them and the Bulgarian people must not pay the price by disappearing."

About 13 percent of Bulgaria's population are Muslims, including ethnic Turks, Bulgarians who converted to Islam during five centuries of Ottoman rule, and some Roma.

Mecca (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - Saudi Arabia deployed large numbers of security reinforcements Saturday as pilgrims performed the final rituals of a hajj marred by double tragedy, with the death toll from a stampede rising to 769.

Health Minister Khaled al-Falih announced the new figure, an increase from the previous toll of 717.

The number hurt rose to 934 from 863 recorded just after the deadliest incident in a quarter-century to strike the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

BERLIN (AP) — German officials said Friday they estimate that almost a third of asylum-seekers who arrive in the country and claim to be Syrian are in fact from elsewhere.

Germany has said it will temporarily refrain from sending Syrians back to other European Union countries they have traveled through, as would normally be possible under EU rules. This has been interpreted by some of those seeking refuge from poverty, persecution and war as a sign that Germany gives special preference to people from Syria.

Already, Syrians make up the largest single group among the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers arriving in Germany this year.

"We are seeing forged Syrian passports. There are people who claim to come from Syria but don't speak a word of Arabic," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin.

Vienna (AFP) - Austria's upper house changed the constitution Friday to force local authorities to accept a quota of migrants equal to 1.5 percent of their population despite opposition from the resurgent far-right.

The move, mirroring EU efforts to oblige member states to accept more migrants, is aimed at relieving Austria's overcrowded main refugee centre at Traiskirchen, and comes into effect on October 1.

It was put forward by Chancellor Werner Faymann's Social Democrats and the centre-right People's Party, which form Austria's governing coalition, and votes from the Greens gave it the necessary two-thirds majority.

The dungeon home of Austrian incest-rapist Joseph Fritzl may be used to house migrants as Austrian local authorities struggle to find a buyer for the property, and enough homes for the hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring across Europe.

The house could become the newest home for up to 50 migrants, according to the Mail, after local authorities failed to shift the seized abode.

Fritzl, who is serving a life sentence for his rape and incest crimes against his daughter and grandchildren kept his daughter Elizabeth captive in the property for 24 years. She is reported to have birthed seven of his children as a result of repeated rapes and sexual violence.

Now the property could make room for up 50 migrants, further embittering locals to the house which has been up for sale for around £145,000. Michael Wiesner from the local social democratic party, said: “It is not something we can prevent. The liquidator is able to do what he wants with it as the representative of the property.

Tornio (Finland) (AFP) - Hundreds of predominantly Iraqi migrants who have travelled through Europe to reach Finland are turning back, saying they don't want to stay in the sparsely-populated country on Europe's northern frontier because it's too cold and boring.

Migrants have in recent weeks been crossing back into Sweden at the Haparanda-Tornio border just an hour's drive south of the Arctic Circle, and Finnish authorities have seen a rise in the number of cancelled asylum applications.

"You can tell the world I hate Finland. It's too cold, there's no tea, no restaurants, no bars, nobody on the streets, only cars," 22-year-old Muhammed told AFP in Tornio, as the mercury struggled to inch above 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) on a recent blustery grey day.

He had already travelled from Tornio to the capital Helsinki almost 750 kilometres (465 miles) south, and then back up to the Tornio border again to return to Sweden.

HELSINKI - Demonstrators threw stones and launched fireworks at a bus full of asylum seekers arriving at a reception center in Lahti in southern Finland, late on Thursday, Finnish media reported on Friday.

Between 30 and 40 demonstrators, one in a white robe like those worn by the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the United States, waved the Finnish flag and shouted abuse at the bus.

Some demonstrators also hurled stones and let off fireworks at the vehicle carrying 40 asylum seekers, including several young children, Finnish television YLE said.

Meanwhile, a petrol bomb was thrown at another reception center in Kouvola, also in southern Finland, police said. No one was known to be hurt in the incidents.

Podgorica (Montenegro) (AFP) - Montenegro is preparing for the likely influx of migrants from Syria and beyond as they carve out a new path on their journey to Western Europe, the government said Friday.

"With the latest developments at Hungary's border (with Croatia) and the pressure on Macedonia and Serbia, it is possible that many refugees will choose to go through ... Montenegro," the government said in a statement.

The government of the tiny Balkans country has therefore been making provisions for its expected role in Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II.

"Taking into account that 5,000 migrants are arriving in the Western Balkans on daily basis, Montenegro is preparing capacities to take in some 2,000," the government said in its statement.

From Montenegro, the migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, would then head towards the country's western neighbours Bosnia and Croatia, said Zeljko Sofranac, head of the national refugee agency.

"At one moment or another, the wave of migrants will no longer bypass Montenegro," he said.

Montenegro can be accessed from Albania, Serbia and Kosovo through mountains where the winters are harsh.

The country's border with Croatia is only 22-kilometres (14 miles) long, also mountainous and not easy to cross.

European Union member Croatia has had to handle a massive influx of refugees entering from across its eastern border over the past 10 days.

That route became popular with the desperate migrants after fellow EU member Hungary sealed off its border with Serbia.

Regional authorities in the southern Croatian town of Dubrovnik, on the Adriatic Coast, said they were also preparing for the expected new migrant route and said the were ready to handle some 3,000-5,000 refugees daily.

"We have information from several sources that migrants may choose the 'southern path' depending on weather conditions and if the complicated situation on the border with Hungary, and at border between Croatia and Serbia continues," local official Goran Cvjetinovic was quoted as saying by HINA state-run news agency.

(Reuters) Saudi Arabia, under growing pressure to account for a crush that killed more than 700 people at the haj pilgrimage, on Friday suggested pilgrims failing to follow crowd control rules bore some blame for the worst disaster at the event for 25 years.

The kingdom's regional rival Iran expressed outrage at the deaths of 131 of its nationals at the world's largest annual gathering of people, and politicians in Tehran suggested Riyadh was incapable of managing the event.

"Death to the Saudi dynasty!" hundreds of demonstrators chanted at a protest in the Iranian capital Tehran.

Saudi Health Minister Khalid al-Falih said an investigation would be conducted rapidly and a final toll of dead and wounded calculated. At least 863 pilgrims were injured.

"The investigations into the incident of the stampede that took place today in Mina, which was perhaps because some pilgrims moved without following instructions by the relevant authorities, will be fast and will be announced as has happened in other incidents," Falih said in a statement.

Abdul Shalabi's official Guantanamo portrait,showing him wearing the orange uniformissued to "noncompliant" individuals

(IBD) How much does President Obama still want the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison shuttered? He just released the man trained to be the 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

In May, 2008, Rear Adm. David M. Thomas, then-commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay, sent a memo marked secret to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command recommending continued detention for Abdul Rahman Shalabi, who has just been released to Saudi Arabia by the Obama administration.

Here are just some of the things the declassified memo said:

• "Detainee (Shalabi) is a member of al-Qaida and a long-term bodyguard for Usama Bin Laden (UBL), serving in that position beginning in 1999."

• "Detainee received specialized close combat training for his role as a suicide operative in an aborted component of the 11 September 2001 al-Qaida attacks."

• "Detainee participated in hostilities against U.S. and Coalition forces and was captured with a group referred to as the Dirty 30, which included UBL bodyguards and an assessed 20th 11 September 2001 hijacker."

• "Detainee received advanced training at multiple al-Qaida camps."

• "Detainee also has familial ties to UBL and has demonstrated his hatred for Americans at JTFGTMO (Gitmo) and will likely reestablish ties to al-Qaida and other extremist elements if released."

• "A HIGH risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies."

• "A HIGH threat from a detention perspective."

• "Of HIGH intelligence value."

• "His overall behavior has been mostly noncompliant and hostile to the guard force and staff. He currently has 95 Reports of Disciplinary Infraction listed in DIMS with the most recent occurring on 27 February 2008, when he was reported spitting on the guard force."

• "Detainee has 11 Reports of Disciplinary Infraction for assault with the most recent occurring on 27 February 2008, when he was reported spitting on the guard force."

• "Other incidents for which he has been disciplined include inciting and participating in mass disturbances, failure to follow guard instructions and camp rules, inappropriate use of bodily fluids, unauthorized communications, damage to government property, attempted assaults, assaults, provoking words and gestures, and possession of food and nonweapon type contraband."

• "On 7 August 2005, detainee was reported to be in possession of broken glass (shank)."

This is the terrorist prisoner President Obama is releasing, believing he will be rehabilitated in a program in his native Saudi Arabia where 12% of the subjects ultimately return to terrorist activities.

Shalabi was bodyguard to Osama bin Laden himself, as well as trained to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide attacks.

He was also on a partial hunger strike for nine years at Gitmo, and will undoubtedly be used in Islamist propaganda against U.S. detention policies once he returns to his home.

No wonder Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., described the release of "this dangerous detainee" as "another example of President Obama playing politics with national security and putting campaign promises ahead of U.S. national security interests."

A high-ranking al-Qaida member who hates America so much that again and again he assaulted our guards at Gitmo, including spitting and using bodily fluids, and who apparently planned to attack them with broken glass.

Does that sound like someone who is going to be rehabilitated in Saudi Arabia? Or someone who will be returning to the terrorist battlefield to wage jihad against America?

The Hague (AFP) - Iraq's Yazidi minority -- the target of brutal attacks by the Islamic State group -- on Thursday urged the International Criminal Court to investigate the militants for allegations of genocide and sexual slavery.

Two Yazidi groups handed the court a new report and documents which show "that ISIS has systematically committed atrocities amounting to genocide and that these crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC," said Murad Ismael of the Yazidi rights organisation Yazda.

Earlier this year, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the IS group, which is sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL, had committed crimes of "unspeakable cruelty" including mass executions, rape and torture.

But she said she could not investigate as neither Iraq nor Syria are signatories to the court and her "jurisdictional basis... is too narrow."

The report, however, specifically names some 20 foreign fighters from countries who have signed the ICC's founding Rome Statute.

(Mirror) Christians are being barbarically tortured by ISIS in their own churches to force them to convert to Islam.

Religious persecution watchdog Christian Freedom International reports those who defy the militants have had limbs cut off or have been crucified -even children.

“ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice told the Jerusalem Post.

“This is why they are crucifying Christians — which includes children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. The reality is, this group will stop at practically nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission.”

SANAA (Reuters) - At least 10 Muslim worshippers performing Eid al-Adha prayers were killed on Thursday when an Islamic State suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at a mosque run by Yemen's Houthi group, security sources said.

In northern Yemen, residents said warplanes from the Arab coalition conducting air raids against the Houthis struck a house in Hajjah province, killing six members of the same family, including four children. Two other people were wounded in the attack, residents reached by telephone said.

Islamic State's branch in Yemen said the attack at al-Balili mosque, just outside the Old City of Sanaa, had killed or wounded dozens of "rejectionists". The Sunni militant group uses that term to describe Shi'ite Muslims it deems to be heretics.

"In a security operation facilitated by God as part of the acts of revenge for Muslims from the rejectionist Houthis, brother Abu Omar al-Hadidi waded into a crowd of apostate Houthis at al-Balili temple, detonated his suicide belt causing dozens to perish or to be injured...," the statement said.

Medics said at least 36 other people were wounded. A Houthi website gave a death toll of at least 10, while Arab media said it was at least 25.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is standing behind his government’s decision not to sign on to the European Union’s plan to take in 120,000 refugees.

The deal, which was agreed upon on Tuesday by E.U. member states that are bound to recognize the body’s migration policy, aims to distribute the migrants evenly among European countries. However, it comes with the cost of foisting mandatory migrant quotas on each member state. The quotas were a problem for Cameron and the United Kingdom — which is not bound by E.U. migration and asylum policy — refused to participate in the negotiations, according to the Daily Express.

“If all the focus is on redistributing quotas of refugees around Europe, that won’t solve the problem and it actually sends a message to people that actually it’s a good idea to get on a boat and make that perilous journey,” Cameron told British parliament September 9, according to Agence France-Presse. “Europe has to reach its own answers, for those countries that are part of Schengen. Britain, which has its own borders, has the ability to make sovereign decisions.”

Cameron’s decision not to accept the terms of the deal has angered Germany. One leading German politician warned that there would be repercussions for the refusal, particularly when it comes to discussing E.U. migration laws that the United Kingdom wants reformed. [...]

Former Yugoslav foes Serbia and Croatia turned back the clock on 15 years of reconciliation on Thursday, trading embargoes and insults as Europe’s migrant crisis damaged relations in the fragile Western Balkans.

With relations hitting their lowest ebb since Serbia came in from the cold with the ouster of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, the Balkan neighbours exchanged tit-for-tat sanctions that saw Croatian goods and cargo vehicles banned from entering Serbia and Serbian-registered vehicles barred from entering Croatia from Serbia.

Croatia, which fought a 1991-95 war against Belgrade-backed Serb rebels to forge its independence from communist Yugoslavia, is demanding Serbia stop directing tens of thousands of migrants exclusively over their joint border, saying it cannot keep pace with the influx.

Amid conflicting information from both sides, Serbian citizens were also being turned back at the Croatian border, witnesses said, though Croatia’s interior minister blamed a glitch in the computer system.

Serbia was unconvinced, and in language that reached back to the collapse of their joint Yugoslav state two decades ago, the Foreign Ministry compared the Croatian measures to the racial laws enforced by its World War Two-era Nazi puppet regime.

"In their discriminatory character, they can only be compared with measures taken in the past, during the fascist Independent Croatia,” the ministry said in a statement.

About 500 migrants have been stranded at a Christian Orthodox cemetery in no man's land between Serbia and Croatia.

Croatian police on Thursday blocked their entry from Serbia near the Tovarnik border crossing, which has been one of the main entry points for migrants as they seek to continue their hazardous journey toward Western Europe.

The influx of mainly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans has caused tensions between Balkan rivals Serbia and Croatia, with countries criticizing each other over border closures and traffic blockades.

Croatia is blaming Serbia for busing migrants to the Croatian border, instead of channeling them further north toward Hungary.

Croatian police say more than 51,000 migrants have entered the country since they first started arriving more than a week ago.

Police say 3,500 people crossed Thursday morning into Croatia from Serbia around Tovarnik, where migrants have been coming in through nearby cornfields.

The influx has caused tensions between the Balkan rivals, with countries slamming each other with border closures and traffic blockades. The migrants began entering Croatia after Hungary closed its border on Sept. 15.

Croatia says it's so overwhelmed that authorities have been shipping the migrants toward Hungary or Slovenia. Most want to travel on to wealthier nations in Western Europe such as Germany or Sweden.

Hungarian troops have started laying down spools of razor wire at a new border — this time, a crossing with Slovenia.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told The Associated Press on Thursday that the razor wire was being installed near a checkpoint between the Hungarian village of Tornyiszentmiklos and Pince, Slovenia.

State television showed soldiers in thick protective gloves installing the razor wire across hundreds of meters (yards) on the Slovenian border.

Kovacs called it a precautionary measure. But both Hungary and Slovenia are part of the European Union's Schengen zone of passport-free travel, so, theoretically at least, there's no need for border checks or fences between them.

Hungary has already built a 4-meter (13-feet) high fence on its border with Serbia and hopes to finish a similar barrier on the Croatian border shortly. Preparations are also underway to extend the fence along the Romanian border as well.

The fence has succeeded in stopping most migrants from entering Hungary from Serbia but over 10,000 entered Hungary from Croatia on Wednesday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's 16 state governors have agreed on measures designed to streamline the country's handling of the migrant influx — including declaring three Balkan countries "safe" states of origin and cutting some cash payments to newcomers.

Merkel said Thursday that Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro will be declared safe countries as part of efforts to reduce the stream of people from those countries who have arrived. The agreement calls for "pocket money" paid to people at initial reception centers to be switched to benefits in kind.

The federal government is pledging to shoulder many of the financial risks of the influx, relieving state and municipal authorities. And the deal would enable making exceptions to cumbersome construction planning rules.

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Two giant waves of Muslim pilgrims collided at an intersection Thursday near a holy site in Saudi Arabia, and more than 700 people were crushed and trampled to death in the worst disaster at the hajj in a quarter-century.

"People were climbing over one another just to breathe," said Abdullah Lotfy of Egypt. "It was like a wave. You go forward and suddenly you go back."

MINA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) — At least 717 pilgrims from around the world were killed on Thursday in a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi authorities said, in the worst disaster to strike the annual haj pilgrimage for 25 years.

At least 863 others were injured. Saudi King Salman said he had ordered a review of haj plans after the disaster, in which two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the "stoning of the devil" ritual at Jamarat.

(Breitbart) A migrant family from Syria are demanding to be settled in “Germany or nothing”, refusing to live in any other European country. They have threatened to go back to Syria if they are not settled in Chancellor Merkel’s country, with its handsome state benefits and open-door policy.

Housam Kbieh toldSky News that he fled Damascus with his wife and two sons, but rejected the idea of being settled anywhere outside Germany.

The interview, which arguably does not sound like the testimony of a “refugee” desperately seeking a safe haven, but rather of an economic migrant seeking an easy life at the expense of European tax payers.

The news came as Liberal Democrat party leader insisted that migrants had “never heard of” the Western benefits systems, and were simply looking for a “liberal place” to live. This is despite a recent study that showed one in five Syrians think ISIS is a positive thing.

Comments left under Sky’s original story included, “No problem, give them nothing” and “If I can’t go to Germany I will go back … not really running for your life then. More like running towards the great freebie.”

The British public appear to be split on the issue, but not without the attempts by the mainstream media to influence opinion. A Breitbart London analysis revealed that the BBC is using a disproportionate number of images of children in their migrant crisis coverage, while a plurality of Britons do not believe the United Kingdom should be taking more migrants.

Furthermore, it seems that the German public are not being showed the same images as British people, with allegations being made that the media is colluding to keep the worst images of the migrant crisis away from German citizens.

Brussels (AFP) - The EU's president urged leaders gathering for an emergency summit Wednesday to stop fighting over a refugee quota deal and take urgent action to secure the bloc's borders in the face of "millions" of migrants.

Slovakia furiously vowed to dispute the quota deal in court, underscoring the deep divisions that have emerged over Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.

Donald Tusk, head of the European Council, called for an end to "the cycle of mutual recriminations and misunderstandings" fuelling the split between the EU's richer west and poorer former communist east.

"The most urgent question we should ask ourselves tonight is how to regain control of our external borders," Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, told reporters.

"The conflicts in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, will not end anytime soon," he said. "This means today we're talking about millions of potential refugees trying to reach Europe, not thousands." [...]

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has asked the European Commission to approve an extension of its temporarily re-introduced border controls to better cope with the record influx of migrants, a spokeswoman of the EU's executive body told Reuters on Wednesday.

The German government introduced controls of its borders with Austria and the Czech Republic on Sept. 13 for 10 days. Berlin requested an extension for another 20 days, the spokeswoman said.

Record numbers of migrants, including tens of thousands of refugees from Middle East conflict, have been traveling to Europe - many of them trying to reach Germany after it promised to admit 800,000 asylum seekers. [...]

Up until recently, the term "Middle East conflict" was reserved by the media exclusively for the Arab-Israeli conflict. So what I'm saying is: low info crowd will be blaming Israel for millions of Muslim migrants flooding Europe, even though most of them come from a far away as Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, north and sub-Saharan Africa.

And speaking of Afghanistan...

A volunteer signals at a dinghy with Afghan migrants at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos, after the dinghy
crossed a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast September 21, 2015. Reuters/Yannis Behrakis

LESBOS, Greece (Reuters) - More than 2,500 mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees, soaked and exhausted, reached the Greek island of Lesbos within hours on Wednesday, a sharp rise in the rate of arrivals via the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey.

They were the latest wave of at least 430,000 refugees and migrants, a record number, to have taken rickety boats across the Mediterranean to Europe this year, 309,000 via Greece, according to International Organization for Migration figures.

Around 50 rubber dinghies each carrying up to 60 to 70 people arrived in pouring rain in the space of five hours on one Lesbos beach, which was covered in life jackets and rubber tubes. Some refugees were suffering from hypothermia.

As they approached shore, a Syrian man lifted his wailing daughter, in an orange life jacket, above their overloaded dinghy. In another, packed with Afghan families, headscarved women smiled and young, beaming men flashed the victory sign. [...]

With the exception of Denmark, which has taken a hardline stance on the massive influx of migrants and refugees, Scandinavian countries are the panacea for many.

Hassan Torkmani, a 29-year-old Syrian perfume mixer, is taking his family to Sweden.

"We heard that the life there is really good, the salaries are good and there is work," he says as he waits for a bus at the Nickelsdorf border post in Austria.

Sweden registered 80,000 asylum requests in 2014 and almost 50,000 in the first eight months of this year, making it the EU country that has taken in the largest number of refugees as a proportion of its population.

Some Iraqis, though, prefer to go to neighbouring countries like Norway or Finland.

"Sweden is good for Syrians but not for Iraqis, I read that on Facebook," an Iraqi asylum seeker said recently in Helsinki.

A total of 54 percent of Iraqi requests for asylum were granted in Finland in the first six months of the year, compared with 33 percent in Sweden.

"I looked up (the possible destinations) before leaving and saw that the delay to obtain your rights is quite short, six months I think."

But all is not peachy.

Finland said last week it would step up its border controls with Sweden after an unexpected influx of mostly Iraqi asylum seekers, and anti-immigration protests have taken place in several towns. [...]

(Ramallah) Israeli forces shot a female Palestinian attacker after she attempted to stab a soldier at a West Bank checkpoint on Tuesday, the military said, as tensions continued to simmer ahead of this week's major Jewish and Muslim holidays. The woman later died of her injuries, according to her father.

The military said forces opened fire and "identified a hit" following the incident in the West Bank city of Hebron. The woman was identified as 18-year-old university student Hadeel al-Hashlamon. She was taken to an Israeli hospital in critical condition and her father, Salah al-Hashlamon, said she later died of her injuries. The soldier was not wounded.

Palestinian terrorist killed when his own grenade detonates prematurely

(JPost) A Palestinian man was killed on Monday night when a grenade intended to be used to harm Israeli soldiers near the West Bank city of Hebron apparently detonated prematurely while still in his hands.

The IDF discovered the body after receiving a report saying a road block made up of rocks was set up near Hursa, southwest of Hebron. Soldiers from an IDF unit sent to the area heard a blast, and in searches found the body of the Palestinian man.

"An initial check of the incident found that the Palestinian was killed by a grenade that he tried to hurl at a military vehicle," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said

A Palestinian hospital official said the 23-year-old man was showered in shrapnel and also shot in the head, though the military said it had not shot him.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union approved a plan on Tuesday to share out 120,000 refugees across its 28 states, overriding vehement opposition from four ex-communist eastern nations.

The European Commission, the EU executive, had proposed the scheme with the backing of Germany and other big powers in order to tackle the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

But the rift it has caused between older and newer members was glaringly evident as the interior ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary voted against the plan at a meeting in Brussels, with Finland abstaining.

"We would have preferred a consensus but we could not reach that, and it is not for want of trying," Luxembourg Interior Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, told a news conference.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said pushing through the quota system had "nonsensically" caused a deep rift over a highly sensitive issue and that, "as long as I am prime minister", Slovakia would not implement a quota.

And Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec tweeted: “We will soon realise that the emperor has no clothes. Common sense lost today.”

This year's influx of nearly half a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa has already sparked unseemly disputes over border controls as well as bitter recriminations over how to share out responsibility.

Refugees and migrants arriving in Greece and Italy have been streaming north to reach more affluent nations such as Germany, prompting countries in central and eastern Europe alternately to try to block the flow or shunt it on to their neighbors. [...]

The Hague (AFP) - Three young Dutch start-up entrepreneurs have launched a website to find temporary accommodation for refugees fleeing to Europe, modelled on the popular Airbnb home rental site.

But on Refugee Hero, created in just four days and launched on Monday, no money changes hands.

Instead private individuals, and organisations such as churches, schools and mosques, can advertise how much space they can spare for free, and leave a contact phone number for migrants seeking accommodation to get in touch.

Already 63 people have registered their homes with refugeehero.com, not just in the Netherlands but also in Ireland, the Czech Republic, France and even Sweden.

One of the co-founders, Jamal Oulel, told AFP the idea came to the group last week as they were discussing Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II. [...]

Riga (AFP) - Hundreds of Latvians marched through the capital Riga on Tuesday to protest against the Baltic state's decision to take in 776 refugees as Europe struggles with a record migrant crisis.

The 500-strong crowd, according to police, waved banners calling on the government to resign and depicting European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker as dictator Adolf Hitler.

Other slogans included "Against immigrants" and "The Baltic is ours" at the rally attended by two members of the right-wing National Alliance, one of three parties in the government ruling coalition.

"The refugees are not victims, most of them are here for money," protestor Pols Vaivods said while clutching a banner in praise of Hungary and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who gave his army new powers this week to block the migrant influx.

"This is not racist. We are against taking in refugees but we can help them in other ways, maybe by sending medical aid," protestor Ainis Pogris said.

Latvia is part of the European Union's eastern flank whose countries have taken the strongest stance against welcoming migrants. [...]

London (AFP) - Britain on Tuesday welcomed the first of the 20,000 Syrian refugees that it has pledged to relocate from camps in countries neighbouring the war-torn nation, according to the government.

"Today a number of people have arrived in the UK as part of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme," said a Home Office statement.

The government would not give details of how many refugees had arrived, or where in Britain they would be resettled.

Under the expanded scheme, the new arrivals will receive housing, access to medical care and education and will be granted five years' humanitarian protection.

After that period they will be able to apply to stay in Britain.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced earlier this month that Britain would take 20,000 refugees from camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey over the next five years after coming under pressure to do more to ease the crisis sweeping Europe. [...]

BERLIN (Reuters) - When the flood of Middle Eastern refugees arriving in Europe finally ebbs and asylum-seekers settle down in their new homes, Germany could unexpectedly find itself housing the continent's largest Muslim minority.

The arrival of so many Syrians fleeing their country's brutal civil war is bound to change the face of Islam in Germany, which until now has been dominated by the Turks who first came as so-called "guest workers" in the 1960s.

While refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries are also arriving, the Syrians make up the largest single contingent - estimated at about 45 percent - and have the best chances of being granted political asylum here.

The longer-term impact on Germany, which unlike Britain or France has no tradition of taking in immigrants from former colonies, is unclear. Many are still struggling through problems all refugees face such as learning the language and getting a job. The number of those yet to follow them is also unknown.

Some trends are emerging, though, and Germans familiar with the Muslim minority see reasons for both hope and concern. The first change is simply in the numbers.

"We could suddenly have five million Muslims," said Thomas Volk, an Islam expert at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank associated with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

France now has Europe's largest Muslim minority with five million, followed by Germany with about four million. But the French figure is an estimate several experts say is too high.

Germany expects 800,000 refugees this year, most of them Muslims, and "this trend will continue," Volk told Reuters. "It will not stop abruptly on Jan. 1, 2016."

In addition, most are young adult men, so the numbers will rise further when those who settle here start families. [...]